Rome is upset that Russia may be moving its Mediterranean military operations from Syria to Libya. “Moscow is transferring resources from its Syrian base at Tartus to Libya,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told Italian daily La Repubblica, reported Defense News. “That is not a good thing. Russian ships and submarines in the Mediterranean are always a concern, and even more so if instead of being 1,000 kilometers away they are two steps from us,” he said.
Defense News reports further that satellite images show Russian warships previously docked at Tartus have put out to sea, prompting theories they might head to Tobruk in eastern Libya, where Moscow has been negotiating a formal deal to use the city’s port with local leader Gen. Khalifa Haftar. If Russia loses use of Tartus it would be denied a port to base naval vessels in the Mediterranean, making Libya a highly desirable alternative.
Defense News cites analyst Jalel Harchaoui as saying, while there was no evidence of naval vessels heading for Libya—yet—there was plenty of evidence of increased Russian flights arriving. “Russian activity in Libya has been more intense of late,” said Harchaoui, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.
Expelling Russian forces from their naval base in Syria has been an explicit priority of the British and their related geopoliticians following the fall of Bashar Assad.
